Little Ice Age Lessons: Towards a New Climate History

Students often ask me: how did climate history – the study of the past impacts of climate change on human affairs – come to be? I usually give the origin story that’s often told in our field: the one that sweeps through the speculation of ancient and early modern philosophers before arriving in the early twentieth century with the emergence of tree ring science and the theories of geographer Ellsworth Huntington. More

Making Climate Policy: What's Working, and Where We Should Go Now

In the 18th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview Vicki Arroyo, Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center and Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law. More

Six Droughts between 1302 and 1306: A "1300s Event"?

Recently coined the “1310s event," the wet anomaly of the 1310s has attracted a lot of attention from scholars. More

Pandemics, Empires, and the Lessons of History

In the 17th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview PhD candidate Emily Webster of the Department of History at the University of Chicago. Webster's trailblazing scholarship combines environmental history, the history of science, and medical history to transform understandings of disease in the British Empire.​ More

Historical Climate Data Can Improve Our Assessment of Future Climate Risk

Australia is a land characterised by dramatic climate and weather extremes. Currently, our understanding of the nation’s climatic history is mostly confined to official records kept by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology that begin in 1900, despite the fact that observations are available from first European settlement of Australia in 1788. More

A Hungry Winter: Colonialism in a Cold Climate

Times of hunger and starvation were part of life for northern Indigenous peoples. Dene, Inuvialuit, and Gwich’in shared lessons about planning to avoid starvation, the need to show proper respect and gratitude for good hunts and successful fishing, and how to eat after a period of hunger. More

A Conversation with Timothy Newfield: Pandemics, Climate Change, and What History Reveals About Today's Biggest Challenges

In the 16th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview professor Timothy Newfield, a climate historian and historical epidemiologist in the departments of history and biology at Georgetown University. More

A Conversation with Kathryn de Luna: Reimagining University Education for Today's Multidisciplinary Problems

In the 15th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview Kathryn de Luna, Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University. More

The good, bad, undefined Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age (LIA), a climatic phase that overlapped with the late-medieval and early modern periods, increasingly interests historians - academic and popular alike. Recently, they have tied the LIA to the outbreak of wars, famines, economic depressions and overall troublesome times. More

A Conversation with Joseph Manning: Climate Change in the Ancient World

In the 14th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview Joseph Manning, the William K. and Marilyn Milton Simpson Professor of Classics at Yale University. More

A Conversation about COVID-19: Reflections on the Pandemic, the Past, and the Future

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In the 13th and most unusual episode of Climate History, our podcast, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde ​share their reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic. More

​The Legal Structure of the Paris Agreement – Flexible and Fit or Fragile and Fading?

As we enter the 2020s, the backdrop of the climate crisis remains grim. Recent scientific reports tell us that global greenhouse gas emissions are increasing, not declining as they need to. More

A Conversation with Valerie Trouet and Amy Hessl: What Tree Rings Reveal About Climate Change

In the 12th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview professors Amy Hessl and Valerie Trouet: leading paleoclimatologists who scour the Earth to measure the growth rings in trees. More

Are Surveyors' Maps and Journals an Untapped Source for Climate Scientists?

In early nineteenth century Australia, surveyors were given a near impossible task by colonial authorities. They were asked to use their expeditions to ascertain "the general nature of the climate, as to heat, cold, moisture, winds, rains, periodical seasons." More

​A Conversation with Victoria Herrmann: Activism and Storytelling in a Warming World

In the 11th episode of Climate History, co-hosts Dagomar Degroot and Emma Moesswilde interview Victoria Herrmann, president and managing director of the Arctic Institute and one of Apolitical's top 100 influencers on climate policy. Dr. Herrmann's scholarship has focused on media representations of the Arctic and its peoples. ​More

A Conversation with Bathsheba Demuth: Histories of the Changing Arctic

In the tenth episode of Climate History, our podcast, Emma Moesswilde and Dagomar Degroot interview Bathsheba Demuth, assistant professor of environmental history at Brown University. Her new book, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait is now out with Norton, and has received rave reviews in both popular and academic publications. ​More

A Conversation with Kevin Anchukaitis: Past Climate Change and Why It Matters Today

In the ninth episode of Climate History, our podcast, we relaunch with a new co-host: Emma Moesswilde, PhD Student in Environmental History at Georgetown University. For the relaunch, Moesswilde and Dagomar Degroot are joined by Kevin Anchukaitis,  associate professor of geography at the University of Arizona and one of the world's leading paleoclimatologists. ​More
Best of the Web:
February 2021

Dust on the Wind Eos

How Indigenous Oral Tradition Is Guiding Archaeology and Uncovering Climate History in Alaska. Discover

Climate Change and the Humanities: A Historical Perspective. Items

Historical Climate Data Can Improve Our Assessment of Future Climate Risk. Climate History Australia

The Terrifying Warning Lurking in the Earth’s Ancient Rock Record. The Atlantic    

Climate History Newsletters:
Quarterly Updates

Volume 6, Issue 1 (2020):
Pandemics and climate change, evidence for the Little Ice Age, and much more.

Volume 5, Issue 1 (2019):
Weighing nuclear power as a solution to climate change, depopulation and the Little Ice Age.

Volume 4, Issue 3 (2018):
Chinese climate history, whaling and past climate, and a new handbook for university students.

Volume 4, Issue 2 (2018):
A new climate history of Australia, reconstructions of Crimean and Indian climates, and the Tipping Points Project.

Volume 4, Issue 1 (2018):
A new climate history working group, the Sun's impact on climate, and cold golden ages.

Volume 3, Issue 3 (2017):
Famines, volcanoes and ancient violence, and the frigid conquest of North America.

Volume 3, Issue 2 (2017):
Disaster memories, climate and conflict, and controlling nature.

Volume 3, Issue 1 (2017):
Trump's election, medieval climate history, new awards and conferences.

Volume 2, Issue 4 (2016):
PAGES, the IPCC, and Frankenstein's monster.

Volume 2, Issue 3 (2016):
Volcanoes, droughts, and the Maunder Minimum.

Volume 2, Issue 2 (2016):
The Spanish Empire and global cooling, annual meeting at the ASEH conference.

Volume 2, Issue 1 (2016):
New financial support and the Old World Drought Atlas.    

Archived Best of the Web

​Archived Features
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